Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Even Cuba was more successful at generational change than the National Party. They went from Fidel to Raul and the National Party have gone from Mark Vaile to Warren Truss—and we just saw evidence there. Of course, this was National Party legislation. In a speech given in June 2007 entitled ‘The coalition government’s transport reform agenda’, the then federal Minister for Transport and Regional Services and Leader of the Nationals said:

The National Transport Commission will develop a new heavy vehicle charges determination to be implemented from 1 July 2008.

The new determination will aim to recover the heavy vehicles’ allocated infrastructure costs in total and will also aim to remove cross-subsidisation across heavy vehicle classes.

It is pretty clear where this legislation originated. The government listened to the trucking industry and made changes to the program in the recommendations to the Australian Transport Council meeting held on 29 February. In terms of this legislation, the Leader of the National Party has told the parliament tonight that they will not vote for any further decreases unless various conditions are met—but they are not voting for these, even though the trucking industry indicates that it wants to pay its own way. This is an important reform. It is significant that for the first time we have engaged with the industry in making changes to allow Commonwealth funding for rest stops. That is about safety for truck drivers and their families and for other families on the road. I commend the amendments to the House.

Question agreed to.

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